Hang Myself for Treason
by Laryna6
Summary: Sparda's had a long life and there have been many he's left behind. SpardaMundus, Preistess, Matier, finally Eva.
1. Midnight: Mundus

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, I make no profit, Capcom does._

_This is the first in a series of four fics pairing Sparda with various people. It takes place after _Storm_, which is in the Nevan set of four and is Sparda/Nevan. _

_This story is themed B is for Baal, for the alphabetasoup livejournal fic challenge._

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_Midnight - Mundus_

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The feast was of the tenderest meat of babes and the most maddened of sinners' souls, fruits of the conquest that Mundus had envisioned.

With control over the food supply, who would be able to stand against the new Emperor? He would reign forever, the devil prince whose strength had overthrown his father, as he had overthrown his, as the denizens of the Underworld grew stronger every eon, as only the strong survived.

He had believed in that vision of an eternal night to reign over the Underworld and the human world. He had been honored to be sent to serve its architect as the strongest of his family in his generation, though by fruit of study rather than innate power. Surely he was no match for Mundus.

Yet Mundus seemed to disagree.

It was almost time, the humans would be beginning the preparations soon.

His duty now was to keep Mundus busy.

What had once been the most pleasant of endeavors, something he had strived to earn by delivering the human world on a platter (oh, the screams of tortured, dying souls, the agony in the air, it had enflamed him more than the succubus could sate: reveling in his strength he had wanted the approbation of the strongest) as the demons that should have been guarding Temen ni Gru did now, pouring through the portal bringing tributed slaves, prisoners of war, casualties of war, the dead and the ones that longed to be dead.

These would be the last to suffer so, he promised himself, and forced himself to look up at Mundus from his bow as he presented the offerings of the conquered world.

And Mundus smiled down on him, and oh.

So strong, so very strong, and he questioned what he had questioned over and over.

Was it worth losing this? Was it worth losing his own world, his soon to be mate, his seat of near-ultimate power for the sake of something as meanlingless as 'right?' The rights of humans? The weak only had the right to die, that was truth.

But they were not weak and ugly.

Yet Mundus, for all they called him evil, and perhaps he was, was beautiful and strong, more than any other, more than those whose lives relied on being bewitching.

And he was seated on Mundus' right hand, the feast beginning.

He fed well, knowing what was coming. He would need stamina to survive the battle long enough to inflame Mundus, need every trick he could muster as he performed the ultimate trickery.

Mundus had promised him he would become the Emperor's mate, Viceroy of the human world as soon as he delivered it to his master.

Tonight, he would swear himself again and be forsworn utterly.

The most evil thing a devil could do, and yet… what was his sin against a world of wrongness, of beauty and strength wiped out? For they were strong, even if not in ways demons valued. They _strived, _and he could not let that be lost.

But they were pale little things, the easily-crushed flowers they admired, next to the midnight sun.

He would betray someone tonight.

Would it be their plans? Say he had tricked the humans: they were using the last of their resources to build the seals, he would kill the last of their strongest white mages at dawn tomorrow, after this night's delights, while the others celebrated in the Underworld.

And Mundus would praise his cleverness. He wanted that.

How could Mundus in all his glory be wrong?

Agony awaited him tonight, and pleasure. But would the pleasure burn him alive?


	2. Dawn: Maria

_Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no money, Capcom does. _

_This one is themed C for Charybdis. _

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_Dawn – Maria_

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She was waiting in the control room, alone, when he came back through the portal.

He had known she would be. She could cloak her presence so the demon patrols in the halls would not sense a human intruder. There were others that could do so, of course, but the more there were the greater chances of the alarm being raised and Sparda's horde pouring back through the portal.

"Are the preparations complete?" he asked her, remaining in devil form, wounds already healed.

She shrugged. "They had better be." No time to check. And it was this seal that mattered, if one of the others that would hold down the tower was ruined by the humans who completed Sparda's work then it could be fixed later.

She was restraining a glare. He could feel her hate despite her shielding, despite her efforts to suppress it. Humans with her powers were not supposed to love individuals. This one had. That human was dead, by his hand. If the commander of the human resistance had not ordered her to be here… She was certain of treachery.

So was he, of course.

Yet this was the last hope and she was strong enough to swallow her hate even if it was like poison to her.

He admired her for it.

A human, so weak and frail the powers she commanded usually killed their vessels before they could be identified and trained. Humans were not meant to be powerful, it seemed.

Yet in their love, in their hate, was enough power his world had now come to rely on it, when once it had been single and complete on its own, before her world and her kind had begun.

The preparations were already complete. He made a practice of leaving nothing to chance. She had gone over them already, clearly. Now only the fatal moments remained.

"Who shall go first?" He asked.

She drew the dagger. "You. You think I'll just let you kill me without seeing you go first?"

"Will you be able to resist the temptation to cast a spell that will keep the orb from working so I stay dead?" he asked curiously.

"If you stay dead, you won't be able to complete the spell. I can kill you later." And she thought she could? If she was able to kill him, she would have by now. She had tried, and failed. She was only alive because she interested him, her quest for vengeance, her strength in one so frail, her…

She was the danger, the magnet that forced him on this course. He must be wary, or she would destroy him.

More than she already had? He was not what he had been before her.

"Very well." He took out two gold orbs.

"I brought my own." They were relying on his word to save them all, and she still refused to trust him in this? Swallowing her pride yet independent… humans were all insane. They were so _different _despite how much like his kind they seemed, mirror images.

Which was why it would destroy both worlds to treat humans as it was right to treat demons. To do so would bring about the end of this world and all its power.

And that was wrong. It would be wrong for her to die in vain. He stepped onto the dias. "When you will."

She struck with all the force of her heart: over in an instant as he felt death swallow him up.

Then her turn, and he tried not to visibly savor the moment in which he would finally have victory over her, yet she knew he did and glared. "Get it over with."

So brave.

And their mingled blood became a gem, and he felt the connection to his world severed as his power, as well as hers, drained into the gem to hold the worlds apart as they had to be.

He missed everything already.

He didn't miss her drawing the short sword she carried and lunging at his back.


	3. Noon: Matier

_Disclaimer: I own naught. Nada. Nothing. Capcom does. _

_This one's theme is E for Egeria. _

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_Noon – Matier_

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She was so _young._ Humans always were, and the demons he fought now seemed the same. He had guarded this world for over a millennium and a half now and it always seemed the same.

Foolish human trying for power that destroyed every human it touched. Brave humans trying to stop them. Though in this case she was of the blood of his own kind as well, blood that he thought combined well.

She was strong, and she had that human strength as well, the striving even when she could not win.

Like now, she wished to venture into the portal, into the world of far less than half her ancestors and confront one of her gods in their rage at human presumption. She would never win, but she wanted to try. So small, so brave and so delicate. He wanted to teach her wisdom and sense, so that when she was 'old' (too soon, by his reckoning: how fast these humans faded!), she would pass it on to the young, generation after generation of them.

By his sense of time, it was noon, yet the eclipse turned the sky to a red, as the once sun-god had been buried in anger and darkness by its mate's death in the war against Mundus. Though not by his hand, that had been while Mundus was still subduing the Underworld. Sparda had joined in the conquest of the human world… ah, memories.

She knew the stories, of course, knew that her people lived thanks to his championing of them when Mundus would have had them all wiped out.

She worshipped him, idolized him, and it made him feel tired.

Well, a battle would make him feel alive again, a trial by combat. Even though as a traitor he deserved to lose.

Wait here, he told her, wait for daylight and I to return.

He walked forward into the portal, into the world of hellfire out of a land of well-watered forest, a 'maiden' watching him as he left her behind, and he was reminded of another maiden, one who had actually been one.

When it was over, he stood at the edge of the portal, planning to return home and wondering where home was. Weakened by the seal, it was not safe for him in the Underworld even though he was stronger there, as all demons were.

In the end, cool green called him back, rest and peace when as a demon he should have longed for strife.

Perhaps he as well was becoming a creature of both worlds, his homeland and his adopted home: an immigrant, he had set his roots here in the place where tall trees, life without defenses, lived for centuries in peace.

And she was waiting for him, the one who he should be disgusted by because she had failed in her quest to stop the sorcerer, and yet… Humans were still so strange.

She was waiting for him at his 'new' home, and her face brightened to match the glorious sun outside as she ran outside to greet him. So far from her island, so brave to come here. She was in love with him, he knew this. They often were.

A child of the world of light, in truth. She reminded him of another, though she would have hated to be compared to one of tainted blood.

This was the world her sacrifice had created, the light of the day that had come after Mundus' night.

Yet soon, he would arise, and dusk would fall again.

He needed to teach this one well, so her people could guard themselves when the darkness came.


	4. Dusk: Eva

_Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry, nor do I profit._

_This one is F for Fenrir, in the themes for alphabetasoup, the lj group. _

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_Dusk – Eva_

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So strange, to find what he was forced to believe was true love on the eve of war.

Sometimes, he could almost hear Mundus' chains flexing in the darkness where he was buried, waiting for the seal to break, waiting to rise again. If he were a human he would have called it paranoia, how he was worried about every little thing.

Humans were fragile, he knew this. She was very un-fragile for a human, but… She would be old when the war came. She had already read the signs, she knew. They would try to kill her. Mundus would be enraged that the one he had chosen as his mate would dare choose another.

He would want her tormented eternally, to torment Sparda with her pain, worse than that of any soul that had earned their damnation through evil. No, she had done him only good. More good than anything else ever had.

But the time drew near, he could hear the clock ticking, but he had never been happier. He would have rather given up his right arm than her by the time he realized he was in love, that she was in love, that he had doomed her. He had already given up his sword and power to forge the chains that had allowed her to be born, to live a life that, though touched by tragedy, was far less horrific than it would have been under Mundus' rule.

He didn't want to think of her living a brief, tortured life, twisted into madness and sin to prepare her for the table. That made it all worth it.

Though time… he would win, he had to win, the dawn would rise again, but he was afraid his lady of light would not be there to see it.

She was untouched by darkness, she did not hate him despite his nature. What if… what if… no, she had seen the worst his kind did, she would not come to hate him if she lived to see the war.

She would be one of the first targets.

He would defend her to the death, he wanted to die defending her as a proper mate should, but he feared he would fail.

He had never feared failure so much, only success. And what if he died? Would their children be able to fight? They would die as well, surely, against the evil he had not sealed well enough.

And even if he defeated Mundus again, eventually she would die, mortal that she was, and her soul must not be allowed to journey to the Underworld with the other souls, to be drained of sin and freed to seek rebirth. Would he doom her to have no other life?

He should tell her everything. He had, but… again.

Did he doubt her that much, to believe she did not truly comprehend what they had gotten themselves into?

It could not but end in pain, it could not but end, and he did not think he could bear that. Better to die first himself than see her dead, to mourn her.

But oh, her sunshine hair and her fiery soul, so glorious, the strength he had seen in humanity, the avatar of everything he had forsaken his native darkness for. Everything good and yet not weak! She forgave and she loved, she laughed and was tender to their children, and he thought, watching her, that the fear and love mingled might break his heart with the ecstasy of it.

He didn't want to look at her and see her grave.

But the light died, though he might rage against it, as they both would. Only darkness was eternal.

But oh, how he loved her.

And he thought sometimes he might die of happiness.

Happily ever after was the end of the story.


End file.
